


The Road To Acceptance

by FaunaProductions



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Happy Ending, Post-Canon, Self-Indulgent, angus gets lots of parents and also a sibling, chock-full of spoilers for the balance arc, especially stolen century and story and song, im pushing so many agendas w this one, june gets lots of parents and also a sibling, so very absolutely self-indulgent
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 21:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29690334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FaunaProductions/pseuds/FaunaProductions
Summary: Lucretia is forgiven for everything she's done.Forgiven by everyone, except for Taako.They're working on it.-This started as a small ramble to my dearest Jelly, then I made it a proper little story. <3
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Kudos: 15





	The Road To Acceptance

Everyone is very quick to forgive Lucretia, all things considered.

Merle hardly has a mean bone in his body, and his philosophy for life is one of choosing to move on and let go, to choose joy rather than dwelling on the past.

Magnus has always been so caring, a gentle soul whose goal in life is to protect, and he can see Lucretia is hurting so much more than he is with this reveal, so he can't bring himself to hate her for any of this.

Davenport has his identity back, his sense of self back, no longer just a name but the Captain, the man in charge of the mission, the gnome who flew the Starblaster straight into the Hunger, rather than running away.

And Barry and Lup? Well, they have each other back. Twelve long years spent as liches, so very far apart from each other, only served to strengthen their love for each other—to stay sane, to stay themselves, they had to hold onto the memories that meant the most to them, the _people_ that were everything they cared about. They come out of the Day of Story and Song more in love than ever before, and they don't let each other's hands go.

But then there's Taako…

Taako had trust issues growing up, passed around with his sister from family member to family member. Some helped them as they grew up, teaching them skills which actually became helpful later, but most were indifferent, aloof, uninvolved—they didn't care about Taako and Lup, they were just waiting for the next opportunity to hand them off to someone else.

When his memories were erased by the voidfish, he remembered a childhood of loneliness, of fear, of anger, of fending for himself, of trusting no one because he _had_ no one.

After the incident in Glamour Springs, he was abandoned by the one person he had trusted in years—an almost laughable notion now that he knows the truth about what happened, the truth about why Sazed ran, why he abandoned him as soon as possible.

That's without even getting into the mess with the Director and the Red Robes, two sides of a fight he couldn't even begin to understand, each telling him to believe them rather than the other.

Who can blame him for still having trust issues?

Lucretia took _everything_ from him. The world was ending, mere hours away from being obliterated, devoured by the Hunger, and Taako—more alone than he even knew, a name for the aching in his heart, a face to put to the vague feeling of _home_ —could not even bring himself to care.

He remembered his sister—who would have been shouting at him to _try_ , to just do his best to save as many people as he could—and gods, it's horrible to go through the stages of grief so quickly. He'd lost her more than a decade ago and he'd never even had the chance to mourn her because that was ripped from him by Lucretia's expert penmanship.

She thought it was an act of kindness, a small mercy she could grant him. Lup was gone—they'd searched for so long, tirelessly, painfully, and she was nowhere to be found… It was kinder to take her away from him completely. He didn't need the pain her memory would cause.

Taako doesn't agree. It would have hurt, yes, it would have crushed his heart until the grief felt like it was suffocating him, but he would have had the _good_ memories too and…

He didn't.

Because Lucretia stole that from him too.

He thinks everyone else is much too trusting, welcoming her back with open arms and hardly a second thought. She doesn't deserve it. He knows it, and so does she—he can see the surprise in her eyes when Magnus hugs her, the disbelief when Merle calls her a friend, the way she's so cautious with the Birds as though this is a dream that might become a nightmare if she stays asleep for too long.

She looks devastated that Taako keeps his distance. He does not speak to her, would not even dream of offering her a simple smile, and Magnus tries so hard to help mend what he can—always too soft of a heart, too kind for a cruel world—but his efforts are in vain.

Taako sees Lucretia—this woman who was one of his closest friends, his _family_ , once upon a time in a fairytale of a century-long journey through the planes—and he cannot forgive what she's done to him, to _all_ of them.

He's furious that she would take Lup from him, and from Barry, but furious too that she would tear Merle's time establishing the First Church of Fungston from him, that she would take away Magnus’ achievement of turning the Tesseralia Losers into the Tesseralia Winners, and Davenport… The mission had to be erased for Lucretia to carry out her plan, but the mission was his _life_. All he kept was his name.

Taako gets very good at avoiding the topic of Lucretia, even with the other Birds.

It's been a long time since the Day of Story and Song, the Bureau of Balance, now Benevolence, is hailed as heroic, the Seven Birds as heralds of a kinder world.

"I think we should settle down," Magnus suggests in the way he does when he's completely serious, a gentle calmness to his manner that's hardly ever seen. "We've been traveling long enough now…" He glances around the table, at the Birds, at Team Sweet Flips, at Avi, and at the World's Greatest Detective.

"I mean…" Taako taps his fingers on the table, lips pursed in thought. "Do you wanna live in, like, one big house?"

"Yeah, maybe?" Magnus crosses his arms, then uncrosses them, then lays them on the table, fidgeting with his grandfather's knife laying in front of him—Taako knows the poor dude is feeling pretty homesick. He does too.

Magnus sighs, then continues, "I don't know, I just… We deserve this, don't you think? A place of our own that's not just some dorm rooms on the moon?"

"But if we're moving out then we're gonna want our separate spaces, right?" Merle asks, scratching his beard.

"This house is gonna be fucking _massive_ ," Lup says, a grin on her face as she leans forward. "I mean, we're inviting the girls too, right?" Magnus opens his mouth and she puts her finger up to shush him. "Rhetorical question, of course, they're invited, and we can't forget the Cannon Guy, and of course _Angus_ —that's a lot of people, Mags!"

"Yeah, they've got some good points, bud," Barry speaks up, frowning. "We're gonna need our own space _and_ enough rooms to house eleven- er, ten people?" He clicks his tongue with a shrug. "Not sure this is really an option, Magnus."

Carey slams her hand on the table, absolute delight rolling off her words, "A tunnel system connecting _different_ houses!"

Angus raises his hand. "There can be a big- uh, a big family room underground that the tunnels meet up in?"

"I like the way you think, little man!" Killian says, gently elbowing his side.

Magnus makes furniture and carves ducks—no one really expected him to be quite this good at building _houses_.

He puts love and care into each one, as he does with everything he makes, and he designs them according to what everyone wants or needs—Taako, for instance, is quite happy with the large kitchen he insists on having, and he can't stop smiling while Magnus carefully draws it then seems to pull it right off the page and into reality.

Ten of them live in the Family House.

Carey and Killian have the smallest house, the only detail they insisted on was a home gym, which Magnus was more than happy to provide.

Barry and Lup's house is humble but still a bit larger than they _really_ need—they've always wanted a family of their own, so they might as well keep that in mind as they build somewhere to settle down in.

Merle's house is decorated with plants. He has his kids every other weekend, and when Davenport is not away at sea, he has a room always made up for him.

Magnus lives alone most of the time—Avi has a job, after all, his room in the house is just there when he has time off, really—but he hardly spends any time in his own house except when he is crafting; most of the time he can be found hanging out in the underground family room, or at someone else's place. That is until he invites June to live with him.

Kravitz moves in with Taako just a few weeks after construction is finished and they've since adopted three cats—one is fluffy, one is hairless, and the third is a skeletal cat Kravitz accidentally attracted to their house which Taako immediately befriended and decided to keep.

When Angus is not away at school, he lives in the Family House. Usually, he stays with Taako and Kravitz, but each house has a room set up for him so he can stay wherever he chooses. In Magnus' house, he shares the room with June, and they stay up late discussing their days before crawling into their own bunk of the stacked beds and falling asleep—there are a few years between them, but they like having a sibling, even if it's a strange change for both of them.

Lucretia still lives on the moon base. She is not invited to the Family House, though she is told about it as everyone moves from the base.

Taako does not trust her, he does not want her in his home.

No one tries to convince him to accept her. It would be a fruitless endeavor, only ending in shouting and tears. So they nod, they move on. It's all they _can_ do. Nobody wants any more heartbreak than they've already gone through, so they stay close to Lucretia but respect Taako's boundaries.

So, months after they've settled into their new home, nearly two full years after the Day of Story and Song, it's _Taako_ who invites Lucretia to one of their family game nights.

She's uneasy, clearly uncomfortable throughout the entire night. He is too.

But they try.

She smiles when he throws a Fantasy Uno card down with a triumphant shout of "Read it and weep!"

He laughs when she has to pull a dictionary out to prove the fifteen-letter word she just spelled in Fantasy Scrabble is real.

When the night is done, she thanks him, and he waves before quickly ducking back into his house.

He doesn't invite her to another game night again for a long while, and she doesn't expect him to.

After another few months, with only the gentlest prodding by his twin sister, he invites her back again.

And it's… a process. It always is, in things like this—a problem too complicated to wave away, but a bond too strong to break.

There is no forgiveness, but there's acceptance.

Eventually, she's welcome to every game night, an open invitation from Taako that just says "Come whenever, my dude" in his flowy handwriting, and she attends each of the monthly occurrences, bringing with her several bottles of wine (as well as some non-alcoholic cider for Magnus and young Angus and June).

It's the middle of a particularly gruesome game of Fantasy Monopoly when Taako—hardly missing a beat in having his piece dance across the board, coming to a stop on his own property—says, "Lucretia, you should really live here, y'know?" He hands the dice to Avi. "Not quite right without you."

There are tears in her eyes and she tries not to cry while Taako, not wanting to make a big deal out of something he feels should have been totally expected, immediately moves on to telling Avi he's landed on his property so he has to pay up.

"I've got an extra room," Magnus says, but in a way she knows he built it with her in mind, just waiting for the day he might be able to say those words. "There's even space for a little home office."

"I'd like that," she says, quickly wiping at her eyes, unable to keep a smile off her face.

Taako smiles too, though playing it off as a reaction to the game going very well in his favor.

Lucretia is not forgiven but… she's family.

Even if Taako never forgives her, that's okay.

He still loves her.


End file.
